In some countries, the COVID-19 vaccination rate has reached 70%-80%, why are there still "natural infections"? Should we focus on developing vaccines for mutated viruses? How are vaccine protection efficacy studies conducted? Last weekend, the 2021 Shanghai Infectious Disease Forum and Shenjiang Health Forum were held in Shanghai, where experts and scholars in various fields such as pathogens, vaccines, drugs, clinical and epidemiological diseases exchanged the latest research related to new crown pneumonia, and the attention to vaccine research and development and efficacy aroused great concern.
With the theme of "Research Progress of New Coronary Pneumonia", the forum focused on seven topics: covid-19 epidemiology and prevention, clinical characteristics and diagnosis and treatment of COVID-19, structure and receptor binding of SARS-CoV-2, invasion and replication, specific immune response, vaccine research and development, and vaccine protection effect. At the two-day forum, experts and scholars from various research institutes at home and abroad, member units of the ASEAN Medical Education Alliance, medical colleges, disease prevention and control institutions at all levels, and frontline prevention and control backbones shared more than 40 academic reports through online.
At about 7 o'clock in the morning yesterday, Wen Yumei, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and a professor at the School of Basic Medical Sciences of Fudan University, opened the special forum on vaccines with a speech. This topic gathers experts from the Americas, Asia, Europe and other parts of the world, and vaccination rates, population vaccination strategies, and vaccine protection efficacy are the same issues that scientists from all over the world are concerned about. "Vaccine development is encouraging, but we still need to pay attention to the science of vaccines, especially the explanation of vaccine safety concerns," said Walter Orenstein, a professor of global health at Emory University. ”
"We must not only exchange more about the research work that has been done, but more importantly, jointly explore the direction of future scientific research, continue to contribute to basic research in the field of infectious diseases and biosecurity, and provide effective support for epidemic prevention and control", Wen Yumei said, for example, vaccine research and development is a technical work, but vaccine strategy requires vaccinology, which is an important scientific field that needs to be explored and developed; vaccine institutions need to study pathogen scientists, anti-pathogen immunologists, public health and clinical big data analysis experts. Engineers and others who develop new technologies to produce new biological products work with epidemiologists to transform vaccines from the laboratory and develop strategies for the long-term protective efficacy of vaccines.
Should there be a specific focus on the development of vaccines for mutated viruses? "It's difficult for humans to catch up with the rate at which viruses mutate." Some experts mentioned that the current vaccine efficacy studies include concerns about the efficacy of Delta and Beta, and the study proves that the existing vaccine is still effective against the mutant strain. In this context, it may make more sense to pay more attention to the perspective of "blocking the spread of the virus", such as mucosal immune vaccines. In addition, sequential vaccination of different vaccines also requires more data and research to provide the most effective strategies for the whole population to deal with the new crown virus.
Hosted by Shanghai Institute of Major Infectious Diseases and Biosafety and Shanghai Preventive Medicine Association, and supported by Shanghai Pharmaceutical Kangsino Biopharmaceutical Co., Ltd., the forum is the first forum held since the establishment of Shanghai Institute of Major Infectious Diseases and Biosafety.
Wu Fan, vice president of Shanghai Medical College of Fudan University, dean of Shanghai Institute of Major Infectious Diseases and Biosafety, and president of Shanghai Preventive Medicine Association, pointed out that in the process of responding to previous epidemics, Shanghai has been scientifically prevented and controlled, precisely prevented and controlled, and the Shanghai model of "early, fast, quasi-warm" has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. As an important measure to enhance the strength of public health science and technology and the capacity building of the public health system, the Shanghai Institute of Major Infectious Diseases and Biosafety is about to celebrate its first anniversary, and is rapidly promoting the construction of scientific research teams and the introduction of talents, accelerating the construction of a "full-chain" scientific research sharing platform and the construction of high-level biosafety laboratories, starting to launch the key core technology reserves for the prevention and control of major infectious diseases, and committed to building a "Shanghai platform, national network, and international alliance" for major infectious diseases and biosecurity research. It has truly become a strategic scientific and technological force of the state in the prevention and control of major infectious diseases and the field of biosecurity and guarantee.
In the past year, the Shanghai Institute of Major Infectious Diseases and Biosafety has been running while building and researching, integrating Shanghai's superior research strengths and resources, focusing on the etiology and biosafety research and technology transformation of major infectious diseases, clinical trials and diagnosis and treatment of major infectious diseases, big data and early warning prediction research on major infectious diseases and biosecurity, and major infectious diseases and biosecurity prevention and control strategies and policy research, and striving to build a national comprehensive research center for infectious diseases, an early warning and epidemic prevention and control science and technology guidance center, The International Pathogenic Standards For Infectious Diseases And the World's Top Comprehensive Research Institutions for Infectious Diseases and Biosecurity contribute to the protection of people's health and urban public health security.
Xinmin Evening News reporter Yi Rong